Murder of Innocence
by YaoiGoddessNekoJin
Summary: Any innocence Leonard Snart had left in his life was stolen by a man sworn to uphold the law. How and why? That's what Barry Allen has to figure out before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

Len stayed still on the bed as the man on top of him grunted his way to completion. He refused to let the angry and humiliated tears break free of his eyes. When the man was finished, he collapsed on top of Len for a moment before rolling off and walking to the dresser in the room. Len didn't watch, just lay there as he heard the drawer being pulled open. He didn't sit up until he heard the tell tale clatter of a gun being picked up. Len jumped to his feet, putting his hands out in front of himself. He was about to speak when the man in front of him beat him to it.

"You know, this is a good arrangement we have. I do my part, you do yours, and we keep each other happy. Unfortunately for you, a better arrangement has come my way. I'm going to have to... _terminate_ our acquaintance." After speaking, the man turned toward Len, who was wearing a shocked expression, and pointed the gun at him. Rage and fear began to bubble up within Len. He gritted his teeth before rushing forward and grabbing the gun. The two struggled with it for a tense moment before Len came out ahead. Gun in hand, Len stood, huffing in anger and exertion, facing one of two men he truly hated. Len fired the gun, hitting the man in the chest. The man let out a surprised gasp and fell back against the dresser. Tears flooded Len's eyes as adrenaline took over and he fired the gun over and over until the clip was empty. When he was able to take in a shaky breath and look at what he'd done, he saw the man laying against the dresser, bleeding from multiple wounds. He was dead.

~x~x~x~

Barry bent down near the cold body of Judge George Johnson. The man was naked and had seventeen gun shot wounds all over his torso.

"It looks like whoever did this emptied a whole clip into this guy." he said, looking up at Joe and Eddie. Joe bent down and knelt beside his foster son. Barry used a pen to pick up one of the shell casings that littered the floor. "We're looking for a 9mm."

"Looks like whoever did this was angry." Joe said. "I mean, why pop off seventeen rounds? Seems like overkill."

"Exactly what I was thinking." Barry stood and gestured to the room. "We've got fibers, fingerprints, and DNA to run. We'll find something." Eddie stepped forward, putting the pad he had been writing on back in his pocket.

"That might take a while. After all, this _is_ a hotel room."

"That's true, but this particular room has been exclusively rented out by the judge for the past two years. Now, who knows how many people he's brought in here, but at least it's not going to have been as busy as it would have otherwise." Barry explained, hopefully. Eddie nodded and the three of them made their way out of the room.

~x~x~x~

Barry moved around his lab with the seamless fluidity of a dancer. He was moving from machine to machine, computer to computer. He was running tests and analysis on the evidence collected from the judge's hotel room. So far, everything was inconclusive. No DNA hits or fingerprint matches. Barry looked up from his computer screen when Eddie entered the room, a tablet in his hand.

"I think you need to see this." he said, approaching the CSI. When Eddie reached him, Barry looked down at the small screen he held. "This is the camera that's trained on the back door of the hotel. I have two clips you need to see." When he hit play, Barry sucked in a breath when he saw Leonard Snart enter through the back.

"Son of a-" Barry said, cutting himself off. He ran a hand through his hair, agitated.

"That's not all." Eddie pressed play on a second clip and they both watched as a shaky Snart left the hotel. His clothes were disheveled and it looked like his hands were shaking when he pulled out his phone to make a call.

"Guess the Flash is going to pay Snart a visit."


	2. Chapter 2

Len paced back and forth in his latest safe-house. It wasn't that he'd never killed before, he had and it had never bothered him like this. No, it was the anger, rage, he felt while doing it that caught him off guard. He had never been so messy and careless either.

"Lenny, you're making me dizzy. Sit down!" Lisa complained from her seat beside Mick on the couch in the main room of the safe-house. Len scowled.

"Sorry. Can't." he snapped. Lisa huffed and flipped a piece of hair out of her face.

"At least stop pacing. You're annoying me." A second later, a gust of wind whooshed into the small house and, when Mick and Lisa looked up, the Flash was holding Len by his shirt against the wall. They both stood, but made no move to approach.

Len looked into Barry's furious green eyes. Barry's face was scrunched up in a snarl under the scarlet cowl.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he yelled in Len's face. Len blinked calmly at him, taking a moment before speaking.

"What do you mean?" he drawled, attempting to be nonchalant. Barry growled and jerked Len forward.

"I thought we had a deal. Remember?! You don't kill anyone and I leave you alone." Len blanched. He wasn't expecting Barry to have connected him to the judge's murder so quickly.

"How did you know?" he asked, fighting to keep his voice smooth. Barry growled and slammed Len back against the wall again.

"You forgot to check for cameras out back at the hotel. We got you going in before the murder and leaving afterwards."

"Damn." Len muttered under his breath. Barry pulled him away from the wall and got in position to run.

"You're coming with me." he said, keeping hold of Len and taking off at super speed.

~x~x~x~

In less than a second, Len found himself in an interrogation room, staring up at Detective West, who, by the way, looked pissed.

"I really shouldn't be surprised." he said. "After all that mess you left Barry with at Ferris Air, it shouldn't surprise me one bit that you'd betray him again." Joe moved to sit down in front of Len. "I guess we just don't learn, do we?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by that, Detective." Joe snorted.

"Cut the crap, Snart. We have the security footage from the hotel, placing you at the scene of the crime. The question is, why did you kill the judge?" Len didn't say anything, just turned his head to the side. They sat like that for a moment until Barry barged into the room. He was dressed in normal clothes and had a file in his hand that he tossed onto the table. Len chanced a look at the kid's face. Barry looked angry, sure, but he mostly looked disappointed and...sad? Whatever it was, Len couldn't continue to look Barry in the face. He was all too familiar with being a disappointment to others. Blue eyes snapped up, however, when he began speaking.

"Judge Johnson had your DNA on him. What are you up to, Snart? Why were you sleeping with a judge?"

"Mind your own business, Scarlet." Len mumbled. That seemed to set Barry off. He slammed his hand down on the aluminum table and got in Len's face, green eyes flashing.

"This _is_ my business! I let you go. I let you do your thing. And, I believed you when you said you wouldn't hurt innocents or kill anymore!" That got to Len. His eyes went steely and his voice was deadly quiet.

"That man _wasn't_ innocent." Len and Barry stared at each other for a moment, the tension being broken by Joe's cellphone going off. Barry stood upright and circled the table until Joe got off the phone.

"That was Eddie." he said to Barry. Then, turning his eyes to Len, he continued. "You'll never believe what he just found out."

"What?" Barry asked, crossing his arms.

"Judge Johnson was a key member of the parole board that's handled the case of one Lewis Snart for the past two years." Barry looked shocked, putting things together in his head as Len hung his head. This was it. It was over. He was going back to Iron Heights and Lisa would be alone _again_.

"You mean to tell me that you've been sleeping with a judge to get your father out of prison?" he asked, disbelievingly. "And, what? He said no, so you killed him?" Len's head snapped up. Barry and Joe were taken aback when they saw that the icy blue eyes were glazed over with tears. Len then began chuckling darkly.

"You think I did all this to get my father _out_? I did it to keep him _in_."


	3. Chapter 3

Barry's eyes widened slightly at the older man's confession. He tried not to show his shock, but was unable to stop it. Snart had just dropped a bombshell. If what he said was true, they had at least one crooked judge on their hands, maybe more. There was no telling how deep this went.

"How- I mean, what?" Barry stuttered. The anger had been drained out of him at the confession. Len sat back in his chair and smirked up at the CSI. It was a cruel expression that held no mirth.

"Well, Barry, the _good_ judge approached me. He said he was on the parole board that was overseeing my father's release. He told me that, if I could make it worth his while, he would see to it that my father was denied parole at every hearing. I didn't want the scumbag to get out, so I made it worth his while." Barry was dumbfounded by this news. Did Snart really hate his father so much that he would trade sex to keep him in jail. He didn't seem like the kind of man that was too into physical contact, at least not unless it was someone he trusted. Barry saw the flinch when he was caught off guard by someone else touching him. Was this arrangement really worth that to him. There was one other piece of the puzzle that had Barry curious.

"So, why kill him?" Len sighed dramatically.

"He pulled the gun on me. Said he had a new arrangement and wanted to make me disappear. We fought. I got the gun. You know the rest." Len didn't figure there was any point in lying. They had his DNA. They had the video of him entering and leaving the hotel. It was over, he was going to jail. Maybe, if he cooperated, he wouldn't get quite as much time. He knew that this was a murder charge, he was going to do hard time. So, anything he could do to shave off a couple of years would be best. For Lisa's sake. Joe, who had been silent up until this point, blew out a sigh.

"This is a mess." he muttered. Barry nodded his agreement. Still, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Snart. The man was put in a bad situation by a man that was sworn to uphold the law. Sure, emptying the gun into the guy was overkill, but Barry saw this as self-defense, if what Snart said was true and Johnson had been the one to pull the gun. But, with Snart's history, with his record, he didn't think the DA or the courts were going to be very kind to him. He was screwed. Barry _had_ to help, in any way he could.

"Alright, I'll talk to the DA about some kind of deal after I finish the report on my findings, see if we can't reduce the charges. We'll have to prove that Judge Johnson was essentially extorting you. If we can do that, you just might avoid a murder charge." Len and Joe both looked taken aback at what Barry said. Len was shocked that the kid was ready to go to bat for him and Joe was upset that Barry so easily believed a criminal.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me!" Joe exclaimed. "Barry, you don't know that _anything_ he's said is true. Let me remind you, Snart is a con artist!"

"Gee, thanks Detective." Len muttered. Joe shot him a dirty look, but he ignored it, opting instead to stare at the young CSI before him. He was captivated by the genuine _goodness_ that Barry exuded. The brunette sighed.

"I believe him, Joe." he said, then turned to Len. "You're going to have to go to holding for right now, but give me some time. I'll do the best that I can." Joe stood from his chair and moved around the table to get Snart. He pulled the criminal along with his as he left the room. Len threw one last look to Barry and saw him run his fingers through his hair, obviously stressed out. He felt bad that he was the cause.

~x~x~x~

Barry worked all night, going back to the crime scene three times before he was done. He had a forensic accountant looking into the judge's finances while he combed through the man's phone records, seeing just how many times the judge called the number that had been identified as Snart's burner phone. Needless to say, every year, around the same time, there were many calls to the number. After a week or two, the calls ceased until the next year rolled around. As far as Barry could tell, this had been going on for about five years. Barry sighed and rubbed his face. He wished Snart had said something to him. He could have _helped_ him. Barry looked at the phone records again, also noticing several other numbers that were called all throughout the year. He began a search to see who the numbers belonged to, but didn't feel confident that they were anything other than burner phones. Standing, Barry decided to pay a visit to the lock-up and see what Snart could tell him.

Snart stood inside the cell when he saw Barry approaching. They both walked to the bars separating them and looked at each other for a moment.

"What can you tell me about the judge, Snart?" Barry asked, getting straight to business.

"For starters, you can call me Len." he said with a smirk. "You're all up in my business, might as well be on a first name basis. As for the judge, I wasn't the only one he was... _extorting_. There were others." Barry sighed, the grimness of the world Len lived in filling him.

"Do you know if there were other board members or judges in on this kind of thing?" he asked.

"Oh, there's a whole ring of them. They all work with each other to ensnare their victims. Get me my phone and a conversation with a DA and I can get you more information." Barry thought for a moment.

"I've already talked with a DA about your case. She thinks, if you're telling the truth, she can get you a deal. I'll go update her and set up a phone conversation that can be recorded so we can nail these other guys. Sit tight." Barry said, heading off in the direction he came from. Len let a real smile slip past his defenses at how earnest Barry was being about helping him.

~x~x~x~

The next day, Len was set up with his phone in one of the interrogation rooms. The phone was hooked up to a recording device, a tech sitting there fiddling with settings. Joe and Barry were in the room, along with DA Cecile Horton. Len was given the go ahead by the tech and he began dialing the number he had gotten when researching the judge himself.

" _Hello?_ " came a woman's voice on the other end.

"I want in." Len said in lieu of a greeting.

" _Excuse me?_ " came the voice again.

"I'm sure you've heard what happened to Judge Johnson. I'm an _associate_ of his and I want his cut."

" _I think you've got the wrong number._ "

"Hang up on me and everything I know about your little parole extortion ring goes straight to the press." There was hesitation on the other end, but the voice came back after a moment.

" _I'm listening._ "

"Invite me to your next _party_ and let me in on the judge's cut of your endeavor and I'll keep my mouth shut."

" _Deal._ " The line disconnected as the other person hung up and Len hung his phone up as well. "Everyone involved in this ring attends these parties. Send me in with a wire and we've got this thing wrapped up with a neat little bow." Len said, looking at Barry. Cecile nodded her head and gathered her files from the table.

"I'll talk to my people, but if we get arrests on all these guys, I don't think there will be a push for an indictment in your case. I'm comfortable saying it was self-defense and I think Barry's forensic report backs that up." With that, she and the tech left the room, leaving just Len, Barry, and Joe.

"Are you sure about this Len?" Barry asked, wringing his fingers together. "I mean, if they find out you're working with us, you could be in danger. They might try to kill you to keep you quiet." Len smirked and Joe raised a brow at Barry.

"You've seen what happens when I'm backed into a corner, Barry. I appreciate the concern, though." Barry looked at Len, earnest worry in his eyes.

"Just be careful. You can go now since there's no indictment against you, but give me your address and phone number so that I know where to reach you." Len nodded and took the pen and paper Joe offered him. When he had written down his information, he stood.

"Be seeing you, Barry." he said, leaving the room. After he was gone, Joe looked at Barry, concern shining in his eyes.

"What was that?" he asked. Barry looked at him, confused.

"What was what?" he asked. Joe furrowed his brows.

"You called him by his first name. And, you seem to genuinely care if he goes to prison or not." Barry blushed slightly at being called out and avoided Joe's stare.

"It's nothing, Joe. He asked me to call him Len. And, I _do_ care whether or not he gets hurt or goes to prison. Deep down, he's a _good_ person. He didn't deserve any of this." Joe scoffed.

"He's a _murderer_ Barry!" he exclaimed. Barry narrowed his eyes.

"That was self-defense, Joe." he justified.

"I'm not talking about that! He has killed other people before." Barry looked around before responding in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, but not since his deal with the Flash! Joe, I'm not saying he's squeaky clean, but I honestly believe he's a good man. And, I'm going to help him to the best of my ability." Joe looked at Barry, seemingly staring into his soul.

"Just don't let this be another Farris Air. Don't get hurt." Barry's gaze softened when he realized Joe was just looking out for him.

"I won't." he responded softly.

~x~x~x~

A few days later, Barry was spending his lunch hour alone in a small restaurant near the precinct. He was eating a plate of fries while fiddling with his phone when a familiar voice spoke up.

"Don't you need something a little more substantial than _fries_?" Barry looked up mid-bite, a fry hanging out of his mouth as he gawked at Len. Barry just blinked before speaking, with his mouth still full.

"What are you doing here?" he mumbled out through the fries in his mouth. Len smirked.

"Really, Barry, your manners are appalling." he drawled, taking the seat opposite Barry in the booth. Barry turned crimson at the criticism. He swallowed the food in his mouth and started again.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. Len smirked again.

"What, I can't visit my favorite CSI?" Barry just stared so Len continued. "In all seriousness, I saw you in here eating alone and thought I'd join you." he said, the sincerity in his voice making Barry blush again. A blinding smile nearly split Barry's face in half.

"See, you _do_ care!" he teased gleefully. Len scowled and stole one of the fries off of Barry's plate. For all his grumbling, Len got a warm, fuzzy feeling deep in his gut at Barry's happiness. It was worrisome to him, regardless of how nice it felt.

"Don't get your hopes up, kid." he grumbled, waving the waitress over. "Do you like eggplant?" he asked. Barry looked at him, confused.

"Uh, I don't know. I've never had it." he answered just as the waitress made it to their table. Len nodded and looked up at the blond.

"Two Eggplant Parmesans." he said, holding up two fingers. The waitress bobbed her head.

"Do you need anything to drink?" she asked.

"Water, please." Len said. The waitress nodded again and left to put their order in. Len turned to Barry. "The Eggplant Parmesan here is divine. You need more than just fries." Barry blushed again and countered, tone defiant.

"I can feed myself!" he mumbled. Len looked pointedly at the large plate of fries and raised a brow. Barry huffed and crossed his arms. It was quiet for a moment as they sat and waited for their food. When Barry spoke again, his tone was quiet and subdued.

"Are you scared?" he asked. Len looked at him with a quirked brow.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Barry cleared his throat.

"Are you scared about going undercover?" he asked quietly. Len's expression changed, closed off slightly, before he answered.

"No." he said simply. "I'm...nervous about it, but not scared. In my line of work, scared gets you killed. I learned a long time ago how to not let fear get to me." Barry just stared at Len, in awe of the man before him. The moment was broken as the waitress brought their plates and set them in front of the two. Barry poked at the dish for a moment before taking a bite. Len watched, amused, as Barry's face lit up and he closed his eyes.

"Mmmm, this is so good!" he exclaimed. Len laughed, taking a bite of his own food.

"Told ya." he said smugly as they both tucked into their meal.


End file.
